


it's the beginning of the end

by dalia (Dalia)



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: (mostly), Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Drift Compatibility, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26057389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dalia/pseuds/dalia
Summary: Derek lost his sister and Jaeger co-pilot Laura to a kaiju attack near the beginning of the war. Now that attacks are increasing and the humans are mounting a final defense, he is called back to pilot a Jaeger with an unlikely choice - scientist Stiles Stilinski.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32
Collections: Crossworks 2020





	it's the beginning of the end

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jungle_ride](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jungle_ride/gifts).



> Title from "Young Volcanoes" by Fall Out Boy  
> Many thanks to Elsin for betaing this for me!!!

In 2013, a monster that would soon be called a kaiju attacked San Francisco. A few months later, another attack happened, this time in Tokyo. As the years dragged on, the attacks grew more and more frequent. So, what did the humans do to fight the giant monsters? Unsurprisingly, they built giant robots. 

Beacon Hills was chosen as a base of operations, based on its proximity to that first attack and its protected location off the coast. 

The Jaeger pilots were many things - determined, brave, enduring, to name a few - but the most important one was the fact that they were drift compatible. They could operate like two halves of one mind, to pilot the Jaegers when the neural load would be too much for one pilot to operate alone. 

Over the years, the Jaeger program began to stumble - the kaiju showed up more frequently, and they started defeating Jaegers sent against them. A few years in, when the defense of the Jaegers began to seem that it wouldn’t be enough, world governments began to look for new strategies. 

After months of debate, it was decided that a wall would be built outside of every coastal city on the Pacific Ocean. This would keep the kaiju out even as the Jaegers were failing to do so. As Jaeger pilots fell, no new ones were trained to replace them, and the program began to lapse. 

* * *

Derek dragged himself out of bed to face the day. His left arm ached sometimes, even though with his healing it should have been better by now. Today was one of those days. He headed up to his job on the wall. 

A few hours into his shift, Derek heard the signs of someone arriving down by the docks. He headed over - it was almost time for his lunch break, after all - to see what the commotion was about. Before long, though, he regretted his decision. It was Marshal Stilinski. 

Derek kept to the back of the crowd, hoping that the marshal wouldn’t notice him. No such luck. The Marshal’s keen eyes picked him out of the crowd. 

“Now, Derek, I was wondering where you’d gone off to and hidden for the past five years,” the marshal commented. 

Derek sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Good to see you as well, Marshal Stilinski,” he said flatly. 

“Derek, I’ll be honest with you. Things don’t look good out there. It’s been rough the past few years and we’re losing more Jaegers by the month. I’m doing what I can, but the government isn’t seeing this as a viable program any longer. I know you’ve been out of this life for a long time, but you were one of the best. And we need you.” 

The Marshal finished his speech and took a step back to look at Derek. “Well? You can think about it if you need to, but I’m taking a helicopter back to base this evening. You can come with and I don’t know when I’ll be back after that.” 

Derek finally looked up at the Marshal again. “I’ll come with you, sir. It’s been a long time but I think I might finally be ready to get back in.”

The Marshal clapped him on the shoulder. “Good. I’ll see you on the helipad in two hours.” As Derek turned to walk away, he heard a voice call after him. “It’s good to have you back.”

* * *

Stiles dragged on a sweatshirt and ricocheted down the stairs. Well, there were only the three steps down from his room, but still. Ricocheting occurred. After grabbing a sandwich from the cafeteria, he careened into the lab. “Lydia! Guess what I figured out yesterday!” 

“What is it, Stiles,” Lydia asked, with an air of faux-politeness. 

“Well, I was thinking. And, you know how we’ve been looking at the kaiju as being different from each other? I ran some tests on their cells, and they all seem a lot more similar than we thought - almost like they could have come from the same creature.” 

“That’s great, Stiles, but I’m busy here. I think I just got a breakthrough and I need to see if it’ll pan out. Speaking of, have you seen the Marshal? My discovery could change the whole situation.” 

“No, I haven’t, and Lydia, my queen, my shining star, much as it pains me to say it - don’t you think that maybe we should tell the Marshal about  _ my _ discovery first? After all, I-” Stiles had to duck as Lydia catapulted a pencil at him, but by the time he looked over she was as poised as ever. 

“Stiles, I know this might be hard for you to understand, but my work is worlds more important than yours. If we can plot the pattern adopted by the kaiju, then we’ll be more prepared and the program will have further viability.” 

“Well, yes, but-” Stiles was interrupted by the door opening and his dad - the Marshal - walking in, followed by… surely, this was a dream. That was Derek Hale.  _ The _ Derek Hale. The man who had piloted a Jaeger by himself after his sister had been brutally killed by a kaiju, only the second person ever to do so, and who hadn’t been heard from in years. 

Stiles shook himself out of his thoughts, and turned to his father, who looked the two of them over. 

“Stiles, Lydia, I’m glad you’re here. This is Derek, he’s working with us again so I thought I’d take him around to meet the crews. Derek, this is Stiles and Lydia. They’re the head of our scientific department, they’re in charge of monitoring kaiju attacks and studying their biology.

“You two, any news?”

Stiles and Lydia began speaking at the same time, but Lydia shot Stiles a  _ look _ that said  _ my turn _ and, because Stiles liked his testicles where they were, thank you very much, he mimed locking his lips and throwing away the key. 

“Marshal, in the past few months, I’ve plotted the kaiju attacks occurring with increasing frequency. The most recent attacks were only separated by three weeks. If my calculations are correct, and they are, then we could be looking at daily attacks within the month,” Lydia stood to attention despite having no training in such a role. 

Before his dad could say anything, Stiles jumped in. “Dad, I think I’ve made a breakthrough, but I need more samples. The kaiju are more alike than we realized, and I think I know a way to test it even better than we can now, but I can’t do it without more tissue.” 

Marshal Stilinski sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Stiles, we’ve talked about this. It isn’t always feasible to get samples from the kaiju, and when we can get them it’s already happening as fast as possible.” He turned to Lydia. “Lydia, with respect to your calculations, what chance is there that you’re wrong?” 

“With respect, sir, less than a one percent chance.” 

The Marshal sighed again. “Then we have a lot of work to do. You two, keep up the good work and notify me if you make any new discoveries.  _ Important _ discoveries,  _ Stiles _ ,” he added pointedly. 

With that, Marshal Stilinski strode out of the lab, Derek following behind him. Stiles lifted a hand but Derek had already turned away. 

“Lyds, did you see that? Now  _ that _ is a specimen if I’ve ever seen one.” 

Lydia sniffed in response. “If you’re done drooling over Derek Hale, I have some more calculations and I need someone to sit here and look pretty while I talk through them.” 

“Well, we all know how good I am at that.” Stiles pulled out his sandwich. “Hit me.”

* * *

Derek braced himself as he walked into the sparring arena. He hadn’t done one of these, before, because he’d just - been compatible with Laura from the start. They’d never needed anyone else. Now, though, he was starting from scratch. Unfortunately, none of the candidates were looking too promising, although he noticed a familiar face standing by the marshal. 

He sparred each candidate dutifully and looked up at the Marshal after the fifth one he’d resoundingly defeated. “All due respect, sir, but is there anyone else I can spar with? Clearly whatever criteria were used to select these candidates, it’s not working with the way that I am.” 

Marshal Stilinski sighed. “Derek, these are the best of the best. It doesn’t need to be a perfect match, just pick someone you think you can work with.”

_ But it does need to be a perfect match _ , Derek thought. Before he could say anything, someone had vaulted the rail separating him from Stilinski and landed catlike in the arena. 

“Hey there,” Stiles said. 

“Hi,” said Derek. “I thought you were a scientist?” he added stupidly before internally kicking himself. 

“I have many talents,” Stiles admitted, waggling his eyebrows in a motion that was frankly quite horrifying. 

“Well, let’s see how well you can keep up with me, then,” Derek replied. 

Stiles only nodded, his face losing some of its perpetual sun and his body settling into a fighter’s stance. 

* * *

The two men circled each other on the sparring mat, sizing up the other one but both waiting to make a move. Stiles struck first, their staffs clacking against each other. A brief spar later, Stiles felt a pressure against his shoulder. 

“One,” Derek said with a smirk. 

The next bout, Derek struck first. Another exchange of blows later, and Derek found himself on his back on the floor, Stiles’ staff against his neck. 

The sparring continued, and at the end they were tied - 4-4. Derek stood up from where Stiles had most recently knocked him down, and turned to the Marshal. 

“I want Stiles to be my partner.”

The Marshal, Stiles’ father, looked at them and just for a second one could see the pain in his eyes that was quickly shoved down. 

“No.”

* * *

Derek’s room was across the hall from Stiles’, for some strange reason - they weren’t even originally in the same department! But it meant that he heard the other man pacing from across the hall. The other candidates he had fought had even been werewolves, some of them, but the result was the same - they just didn’t mesh. Stiles was the  _ only _ one he’d felt that connection with. 

Derek sat on his bed to think. Why wouldn’t the Marshal let Stiles be a pilot? The look in his eyes when Derek asked - he could have sworn that the pain was there. But that didn’t make sense, did it? Maybe Stiles knew more about the situation. Derek was preparing to stand up, to see if Stiles was in his lab working, when he heard a knock on the door. 

Standing, Derek went to answer it. Stiles’ face grinned at him from the other side. 

“Hey man, can I come in?”

“We can talk here,” Derek said flatly. 

“Ooookay, whatever you want, dude,” Stiles replied. “Anyway, did you feel what I felt out there?” 

“Feel what,” Derek said. 

“Feel-” Stiles sighed. “Dude, we’re drift compatible. Didn’t you feel it?”

Derek felt his blood run hot at the reminder, then cold. He  _ had _ felt it. But the idea that he could still be drift compatible with anyone - it was almost an affront to Laura’s memory. So he shoved down the feeling that this was right, and leaned against the doorway. 

“Look, Stiles, I don’t know what you felt but I don’t think I felt it too. It just wasn’t there.”

Stiles took a step back, spluttering. “But- I-” he took a deep breath in, and then out. “Fine.” Stiles spun around and walked across the hallway, slamming his door in a way that said more than any of his words had. 

Derek settled in for another long evening. 

* * *

Stiles sat in his room, fuming. Derek had  _ said _ he wanted Stiles to be his partner. So why was he backing down now? Deep down in his gut he had a feeling, but he shoved it away in a futile attempt to avoid the seemingly inevitable spiral. And his  _ dad _ wasn’t even on his side. Stiles conveniently ignored the look of pain he’d seen in his dad’s eyes when Derek had asked if Stiles could be his partner. It was a raw pain, one that would never truly heal, and Stiles hated that he had made his dad feel that way. 

“I’ll never do that to you again, dad,” he murmured. 

“Do what, son?” 

Stiles jumped. “Hi dad! I didn’t see you there! Also, I thought I closed my door? Anyway, what’s shaking?” 

Marshal Stilinski chuckled. “I just wanted to check in. Son, you know that I trust you, right?”

“Yes, dad, I know.”

“And you know that I wouldn’t have anyone else doing the research you’re doing, right? I know you want to pilot a Jaeger but I just - I  _ need  _ you to be safe.” The Marshal’s voice cracked with the last word. 

Stiles looked at his feet to hide the watering of his eyes and nodded. “I know, dad. I love you.”

“I love you too, Stiles.”

* * *

Derek’s next few days passed in a blur, as he trained (alone) and became accustomed to the base again. It wasn’t that he was avoiding Stiles, it was just that he was… avoiding Stiles. 

He felt bad for denying their compatibility, but it at least seemed like the Marshal didn’t even approve of his son piloting a Jaeger. That made ripping off the band-aid easier. 

However, no matter how much he tried to deny it and shove his feelings down, they still bubbled up. That was… odd. He hadn’t had any trouble ignoring things since… well. Maybe he should go see how things were going in the science lab. 

* * *

Downstairs, Stiles and Lydia were in yet another… disagreement, let’s say. 

“Remember the rules, Stiles, organs have to stay on  _ your side _ of the room,” Lydia said, using a perfectly manicured hand to send kaiju entrails sailing to land on Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles flailed and turned, just in time to see Derek walk into the room. 

“Oh, hi Derek! How are you? Do you need anything? I’m sure our setup is impressive but-” 

“I was just wondering if you guys could tell me about your research,” Derek interrupted, “I think I missed some points the first time.”

Stiles nearly tripped and sent the kaiju entrails sailing into the air once more, this time toward Derek who deftly caught them. “Right, of course, let me tell you about what I’m doing right now! And then Lydia can tell you about her… things that she’s working on I suppose.”

Derek made it five words into Stiles’ speech before feeling his eyes begin to glaze over, and getting distracted by the other man’s gold-flecked eyes. 

Lydia cleared her throat, shaking Derek out of his daze. “Right. Now that’s out of the way, I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve graphed the numbers in several different ways - here’s pilot losses over time, and here’s just the attacks over time. Over here we’ve got it color-coded by approximate location, and I’m sure you can see the trend.” 

“So, let me get this straight. Events are happening more frequently, we’re losing pilots every attack,  _ and _ we have no idea how these things actually work.” Derek sucked in a breath. “That’s pretty bad.”

“Tell me about it,” replied Lydia. “Anyway, I’m hoping to get these calculations finished up soon so I can give the marshal a more accurate estimate.”

“That makes sense, but have you considered: no one’s going to  _ care  _ about the number of events if we can’t get a good read on how the kaiju are made up?” Stiles spun around in his chair like an uncoordinated supervillain, complete with steepled fingers. 

Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yes, Stiles, your research is more important than mine, yada yada yada. Can I get back to work now?”

“Of course, my shining star, but also: wherever am I going to find another assistant? This base is  _ distinctly _ lacking in people willing to assist their poor scientists instead of punching their way out of problems.” 

Looking around, Lydia grabbed Derek’s arm and pushed him in Stiles’ direction. “Here’s your assistant! Now leave me alone so I can get some work done.”

“Does she ever scare you?” Derek muttered to Stiles. 

“Every day,” the other man said nonchalantly. “Now, are you going to help or are you going to stand there and look pretty? Because let me tell you, you’re great at the second one, but I could  _ really _ use the first one right about now.” 

Derek felt his face flush at the ‘looking pretty’ comment, hoped it wasn’t  _ too  _ red, and finished walking over to Stiles. “What do you need help with?” 

“Well, I want to try something out but I’m not sure it’ll work. One thing I’ve noticed, as I was looking at the kaiju, is that they all seem to share the same DNA. That’s weird, right? They’re all different organisms and they all look completely different. In humans, the only way that two things will have the same DNA is if they’re identical twins and that seems like a bit of a far reach, at this point. 

“So, it got me to thinking. What else could account for the similarities in the DNA? Kaiju all look different, sure, but that can be determined for organisms later in life. It’s all based on cell expression. I wouldn’t necessarily expect a strapping man like you have a good handle on the intricacies of the situation, but the short version is this - there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Or rather, there’s more than one way for gene expression to present itself, and if all the genes are present but different ones are expressed in different organisms, then they could still all share the same genome. Nature, nurture, am I right?” 

Derek blinked. 

“Ah, well, I wouldn’t expect you to understand anyway.” Stiles swooned like a victorian lady, looking at Derek out of the corner of his eye. 

“No! It’s just a lot to take in. So, what did you need me for?” Derek asked. 

Stiles spun in his chair again. “Right! Well, I’ve been thinking, and… well, how do you feel about helping me get my hands on some more kaiju brain tissue?” 

“What’s in it for me?” Derek asked, crossing his arms. 

“Um… more time spent with my winning personality?” Stiles said, grinning. 

Derek sighed. “Okay, but I only have until lunch. After that I need to train.”

“Deal.” 

* * *

The research was fascinating, but Derek couldn’t stop thinking about Stiles’ amber-flecked eyes. Those eyes… you could get lost in them and not even mind, which Derek was in the process of doing. 

He shook himself out of yet another daydream to tune back into what Stiles was saying. “And if you put this piece here… perfect! Now that the system is set up, I should be able to test it.”

“Hang on Stiles, what exactly are you testing?” 

“Well, if the kaiju have brains like us, then I should be able to drift with one! I know that drift compatibility is an option for me, so it shouldn’t even be that hard,” Stiles finished, and Derek blinked again.  _ Why _ was he getting so distracted all of a sudden? 

“Stiles, that’s nuts. Why would you want to drift with a kaiju? They’re monsters, they’re- they’re-”

“They’re creatures we don’t  _ understand _ , Derek, don’t you get it? I mean, yeah they definitely are monsters, but what if there’s more to them than what we first saw? What could we learn in the drift?” 

Derek sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I guess I see your point. But, if we’re going to do this, we should tell someone.” 

“Hang on, Derek,  _ we _ ? This was just going to be me, I just needed some help getting it set up-” 

Derek turned to meet the other man’s eyes, but found them pointed at the ground. Gently, he lifted Stiles’ chin with a finger, but Stiles still refused to meet his gaze. “Stiles. Look at me.”

Stiles finally looked up. 

“You should know, better than anyone, how dangerous it is to go into the drift alone.”

Stiles’ face crumpled, and he jerked his chin out of Derek’s fingers. “I  _ know _ , Derek, but it isn’t like anyone else was going to go in with me! If I can show my dad that I can do this, then- I-” his voice dropped to a whisper, “maybe he’ll let me pilot a Jaeger.” 

Derek felt the pang again, but pushed it down. If he just ignored the pain, maybe it would go away. He felt his fangs pushing at his gums, and mentally smacked himself for coming so close to losing control. With his fists clenched he brushed past Stiles and hurried back to his room, head down. When he got there he unclenched his hands to see blood on his palms and healing claw punctures. 

This was bad. 

* * *

Stiles took a moment to take inventory, and sat down again. He  _ had _ to show his dad that he could do this, otherwise what good was he? Or maybe… he thought that the system was set up correctly, Derek had helped him finalize that part, so it should be possible…

Stiles took a deep breath and put on his homemade drift headset. 

* * *

_ He was floating, boneless, in a sea of starry neurons. The tunnel opened and he could feel himself falling, falling down… _

Stiles hit the ground and looked around. He saw all manner of kaiju surrounding him, even the evidence of a society, but it was like looking at it through a frosted glass pane.  _ So this is the Breach _ , he thought to himself. 

The darkness claimed him. 

* * *

“Stiles!  _ Stiles! _ ” Derek was shaking him, pulling off the headset as Stiles opened his eyes. 

“Whaddayawant?” Stiles mumbled, blinking. 

“I came back to check on you, and you were on the floor - Stiles, are you okay?” Derek sounded way more concerned than anyone who  _ denied drift compatibility _ should, and Stiles told him so. Derek blanched. 

“If you keep scowling, your face will stay that way, Sourwolf,” Stiles said. That seemed to shake Derek out of his thoughts. 

“Sour- hey!” Derek said. Stiles thought, though, that Derek seemed relieved. 

_ Had Derek always had such pretty eyes? _ Stiles reached up to poke his nose, and Derek playfully nipped at his finger. Stiles snatched it back, clutching his chest. “Derek, you wound me! And to think I trusted you!” 

“Ahem?” Lydia cleared her throat pointedly in the doorway, staring at them judgementally. 

Stiles scrambled to his feet, only swaying a little bit. “Lydia! Lyds! My moon, sun, and stars! To what do we owe the honor of your presence?” 

“Well, I was coming back from lunch and I saw Derek cradling your head. Then it got too sappy even for me, so I decided to let you know I was here,” Lydia said dryly. 

“That’s… fair, I suppose. Hey, did you know that kaiju have whole societies? I just learned about them!”

“Stiles, how many times have we been over this?  _ It doesn’t matter how cool the society is, we need to know when the next attack is coming so we can be prepared _ ,” Lydia snapped. “I’m going to lunch.” 

“Lydia, you just went to lunch! Ugh.” Stiles let his head drop back against Derek’s chest. “She hates me. She’ll never speak to me again. I’m ruined.” 

Derek pushed Stiles off of him and rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t hate you, you just scared her.” He grabbed Stiles by the shoulders. “Stiles, if you ever try to drift with a kaiju alone again, you won’t have to worry about dying because I will kill you myself unless Lydia gets there first, which she might.” 

Stiles blinked at Derek’s sudden seriousness before replying. “Geez, okay. If I drift with a kaiju again, I’ll make sure to take you with me.”

To his surprise, Derek nodded. “Deal.”

* * *

That evening Derek sat in his room, dejected, and thought back to the events of the day. He was sure that there had to be  _ someone _ other than Stiles who he was drift compatible with. But, who?

Jackson and Danny had agreed to each try drifting with him, which had gone even worse than expected. Danny, being a very mellow person, had managed to at least enter the drift with Derek, but their movements were off and they nearly took out half of the helicopters before Derek forced himself out of the drift, gasping. 

He hadn’t even been able to enter the drift with Jackson. Why couldn’t he let himself feel that vulnerability? 

The next group to try was Scott and Isaac. They both started off promising, but quickly spiraled - Derek wasn’t sure how they were drift compatible with each other, but they sure as hell weren’t drift compatible with him. After the last attempt with Isaac, where they’d nearly destroyed the helicopters  _ again _ , Derek said he was too tired to continue. He could see the disappointment in Marshal Stilinski’s eyes as he walked back to the barracks, head bowed. 

A knock at the door shook him out of his thoughts. A quick glance through the peephole told him who was outside. 

“Go away, Stiles,” Derek sighed, after opening the door a crack. 

Stiles gently pushed past him and into the room. “Yeah, no. You look like a kicked puppy - pun intended - and it’s only fun to call you Sourwolf when you get all growly at me after I do it. So, I have a plan.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Which is…”

“Well, my dad said that you couldn’t be my partner. But he didn’t actually ever say anything about not drifting together. So I figure, what if we try entering the drift together? Feel it out, see if it works, and if it does, then we can go to my dad and try to talk him into it. Whaddaya say?”

Derek sighed and sat heavily on the bed. “Stiles, we  _ can’t _ do this. I know what you think you felt, but it’s not safe.” 

Stiles spun around to pound his fist into the doorframe. “I  _ did _ feel it! I know I did! And you felt it too! So don’t belittle me by pretending that there was nothing there.” Striding towards Derek, he grabbed the larger man’s shirt in a fist. “Don’t tell me that you didn’t feel it too.” 

Derek pushed him away, but not before seeing the fire in Stiles’ eyes. “Okay, we can try it.  _ Once _ .” 

* * *

It was midnight, and Stiles glanced behind him to check that Derek was still following. Gipsy Danger loomed out of the darkness at them. As he watched, Stiles saw a figure step out of the shadows behind the Jaeger. 

“Lydia?” 

Lydia sighed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Stiles, can I take this moment to impress upon you exactly how stupid this idea is?” She turned to Derek. “Derek, I expect this from Stiles, but I was hoping you’d have better judgement.”

Derek looked more bashful than Stiles had ever seen him. He almost felt bad for dragging him along on this path, but not quite bad enough to stop trying. “Lyds, we’ve got two options here. You can turn us in and my dad will probably disown me, orrrrr… you could help us do a drift test in ol’ Gipsy here.” 

“Don’t call her old,” Derek muttered. 

Smiling, Stiles walked past Lydia to stare up at the Jaeger. In all the times that he’d come here to gaze at and admire it, this was the closest he’d ever been to her cockpit. The moment passed, though, as Derek walked to stand next to Stiles. 

“Let’s get this over with, I have more training tomorrow and you’re supposed to be researching the kaiju again.” 

Shaken out of his reverie and reminded that  _ of course _ Derek didn’t actually want to be here, Stiles turned towards the armor locker. He and Derek pulled on their suits, Stiles taking a moment to sneak a couple of glances at Derek and wonder what his tattoo meant. 

The time had finally come to do the first test. “Test 1, Gipsy Danger, Derek and Stiles piloting. Entering drift sequence in 3... 2… 1…” Lydia’s voice came over the loudspeaker. 

Stiles and Derek locked eyes, and then put on their helmets to enter the drift. 

* * *

It was going to be fine. 

That’s what he kept telling himself. 

The drift felt a little different than normal, but wasn’t that to be expected? 

After a proverbial clunk, Derek felt himself settle down on a street. Looking over, he saw Stiles - a younger, more vulnerable version, with buzzed hair - maybe ten years old - hiding behind a car. 

“Stiles!  _ Stiles! _ Let the memory wash over you, we need to get to the drift,” Derek shouted. His urging fell on deaf ears, as young Stiles continued to cower. 

A great pounding sound filled the street, and Stiles turned to sprint down an alleyway. As Derek caught a glimpse of Stiles’ face, he saw silent tears tracking through the dirt on his cheeks. Before following, Derek looked back to see a Category 1 kaiju making its way down the street, pushing cars out of the way as though they were toy trains. 

The alley turned into a dead end, and Stiles hid behind a dumpster. Derek watched the kaiju prowl along the street, seeming to scent the air as it moved. Interestingly, this one was more reptilian than the modern ones. He’d have to mention that to Stiles after they were done. Turning to inspect the alley further, the kaiju sniffed and Stiles held his breath. Derek held his breath as well, despite it being a memory. 

The kaiju was getting closer. Although he knew Stiles had survived, Derek still found himself worrying that he wouldn’t. 

A bang echoed from down the street, as a car was hurled at the kaiju. The beast turned to inspect the noise, and Derek and Stiles crept down the alley to watch the fight. 

A Jaeger, Category 1 by Derek’s estimates, was marching down the street to meet the kaiju head on. Blood spattered down on the road as the pilots stabbed the kaiju through the belly and yanked up towards its head. Derek sagged back against the wall, thankful that the memory would be over soon. 

A scream made him whip his head around to look at the fight. In its death throes, the kaiju had stabbed open the top of the Jaeger and pulled out a woman Derek had only seen in pictures on the Marshal’s desk, still attached to her harness. 

It wasn’t the woman who was screaming. 

“ _ Mom! _ ” came Stiles’ young voice, already hoarse. “ _ Noooooooooo! _ ”

Derek started running towards him, but it was too late. Stiles raised his hand to fire a blast from the plasma cannon on his hand still in the Jaeger. 

“Stiles, listen to me. I know you’re scared. I know you don’t understand or remember right now. But this  _ isn’t you _ . You can let the memory of being a scared little boy pass and we can get fully into the drift.”

Stiles turned to Derek, with a hatred in his eyes that Derek had never seen there before. “I’m going to save her this time,” he declared, his voice raw from screaming. He continued to power up the cannon. 

Enough of Derek was still present in the body of the Jaeger to see the cannon charging. If it went off, it would blow clean through the base and possibly kill everyone in the tech room, including… Lydia!

“ _ Stiles! _ Lydia is in the room! I know that you don’t remember her in this memory, but please. Don’t hurt your friend.”

Stiles’ eyes stayed locked with hatred on the kaiju, the plasma cannon charging even as his father piloted the Jaeger to decapitate the kaiju and drop its body to the ground before stumbling out of his suit to embrace his son. The hatred still burned in Stiles’ eyes, and- 

Derek was jolted out of the drift and saw the cannon powering down in the outside room. A somewhat disheveled Lydia stood up in the tech room, having pulled the emergency power down switch. 

Stiles lolled next to him, and Derek hurried to get him out of the helmet and harness so they could regroup. 

Then the Marshal walked into the tech room, and no amount of anger could hide the raw pain and fear in his eyes. 

* * *

Stiles sat next to his kaiju entrails, shivering, his mind spinning with memories. 

“Stiles?” Derek sat down beside him. Stiles looked up, to see Lydia frostily calculating attack patterns on her chalkboard. 

“She hates me,” Stiles mumbled. 

“You almost killed her,” Derek replied, “and you almost hurt us. You scared her.”

“I didn’t mean to! I just - got lost.”

“That’s the thing about the drift, it’s easy to get lost in it. But you have to just let the memories wash over you, you have to see them and then let them go. It’s hard. It was hard for me at first, when all I had was Laura and all I could think about was my family being killed. But now that I’ve drifted enough times, I’ve realized it’s like the ocean. You can’t fight it or get swept away by the flow, you have to plant your feet and duck to let the memories wash past you. That’s what it’s like to be in the drift.”

* * *

The next week, Stiles and Lydia still weren’t speaking. Derek walked into their lab again and shivered, the frost between the two scientists nearly palpable. 

“Um, Lydia? How are the models coming along?” Derek asked. 

“Well, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that I think I’m managing to predict this correctly. The bad news is that if my calculations are correct, then kaiju should start appearing so close together that we have two at once.”

“A double event?”

“A double event.”

* * *

The double event happened right on schedule. Stiles wasn’t sure why he was surprised by it, none of Lydia’s other calculations had been off. The Marshal has just doubted that such an event could even occur, and Stiles was ashamed to admit that his father had begun to sway his opinion. 

* * *

First came one kaiju to attack the city. Scott and Isaac were the first to leave to fight it, followed by Jackson and Danny. After a hard fought battle, they defeated the first kaiju. Limping back to the base, another kaiju emerged. Erica and Boyd stood their ground and defended the city, but not without significant collateral damage. The pride Derek felt at seeing the younger pilots coming into their own was only slightly dampened by the fact that he and Stiles were still not allowed in a Jaeger together. 

The second kaiju crash landed in the trading district. Derek thought back to a conversation he’d had with Stiles the other day. 

* * *

“Derek, I think I’ve got a breakthrough in the system! I know it might be too soon to tell, but it looks like if we could get a full brain then I’d be able to drift with it - properly, this time,” Stiles said during a lunch break. 

Derek raised an eyebrow. “What makes you so sure that this time is different?”

“Well, with this adjustment here and another adjustment over here,” Stiles mumbled around the bite of sandwich in his mouth, “the drift should be more stable, which would increase the safety for the drifter - me, that is.”

“You mean us,” Derek put in absentmindedly.

“Yeah, yeah, us. The point is, with the modifications I made to my equipment, we should be able to enter a stable drift with even a full sized kaiju brain.” Stiles’ voice trailed off. “Now if only I knew where to find one…”

Derek sighed. “I think I know how we can get ahold of one, but I don’t like it.”

“Well Derek, as we all know, if you don’t like something that’s an automatic plus in my book, so let’s hear it!” Stiles replied. 

Sighing again, Derek told him. 

Stiles was  _ thrilled _ . 

* * *

Three hours and one helicopter ride later found them waiting outside an upscale nightclub in the trade district. Stiles was jittery and on edge, bouncing his leg and chewing on a nail until Derek absentmindedly placed a hand on his knee. 

Had Derek been looking at Stiles’ face, he would have seen the way he stiffened and then relaxed into the touch. 

“Derek, good to see you.” A middle aged man with graying sandy brown hair opened the door and beckoned them to come inside. “What brings you here?”

Derek nodded briefly. “Argent, good to see you. My friend Stiles here was wondering if you could help us with a problem we’ve run into.”

“Sure, what’s up? I’ll see what I can do.”

Stiles stepped forward to stand next to Derek. “We’re interested in a kaiju brain. By the time the Jaeger program recovers a body, the brain has been deprived of oxygen for so long that it is near-useless for the research we’re performing.”

“And why should I help you with this?” 

“Well… it could form the difference between if we win or lose this war. There’s no telling what’ll help us understand these things better, and if that answer lies in the brain of one of them, I for one would like to know,” stiles answered. 

Chris smiled, slightly. “If nothing else, you’ve intrigued me. Come inside, my daughter Allison will show you the collection we have in house so far.”

* * *

Allison was a pretty girl with long brown hair, about Stiles’ age. His first thought upon seeing her was  _ this girl would drive Scott mad _ . He shook himself out of the moment to introduce himself, and the dimples when she smiled had him sold. He had to introduce the two of them. 

“I hear you’re looking for kaiju brains, why do you need a fresh one? Do you want to drift with it or something?”

If Stiles had been drinking water, he’d have spat it out. “Whaaat? No, that’s silly. Why would someone even think of drifting with a kaiju?” He crossed his arms in what he hoped was a mature and sincere manner. 

Allison sighed and Derek just closed his eyes. It was Allison who spoke. “Stiles, you’re a  _ terrible _ liar.” 

“Alright, alright, fine. I might be a tiiiny bit interested in seeing what it’s like to drift with a kaiju. But can you blame me? How much more could we learn about them, their culture, their community, by being inside their minds?”

“But don’t you have to be drift compatible to drift with someone?” Allison asked. 

“Well, usually yes. But it is possible to drift with someone - or some _ thing _ \- that you don’t share compatibility with, it’s just more taxing. That’s why ol’ Derek here is along for the ride, isn’t that right buddy?”

Derek frowned. “Don’t call me buddy.” 

Allison looked between the two of them and smiled. “Alright, I’ll help you. But just know that I’m mostly doing it because I think my dad sent you here so I’d send you away, and I am really looking forward to the look on his face when he hears about this plan.”

* * *

Chris Argent sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. Stiles was reminded of the exact same expression appearing on Derek’s face more than once. 

“You gave them access to  _ what _ ?” he repeated, for the third time. 

“I told them they could look through the brain tissue we have!” Allison replied sunnily. 

“I heard you the first two times, I was just hoping I heard wrong.  _ Why _ did you tell them this?” Chris asked. 

“Well, I thought it would be a good idea to support the researchers defending us from the kaiju, and plus they made a convincing argument.”

“Which was…?” Chris said before shaking his head. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. Just be safe and let me know if there’s any trouble.”

With that, Allison escorted Derek and Stiles downstairs. The room was filled with hundreds of kaiju parts, and hundreds more workers poking and prodding them. Derek was pretty sure that Stiles hadn’t closed his mouth since they entered the room. He let himself get lost in Stiles’ lips and face for a moment, before tuning back in to what Allison was saying. 

“So here is where we work on the brains. If we manage to get tissue in good condition, we’ll separate it and distribute it.”

Stiles looked her in the eyes. “You sell it on the black market.”

Allison nodded slightly. “To put it more crudely, yes. We do. But there are  _ many  _ takers, and you may well soon be one of them.”

“Touché.”

* * *

The next attack was right on schedule. Stiles could hear Lydia saying, “Well of course, would you expect anything less than perfection from me?” Unfortunately, that meant that it struck while he and Derek were still in the trading district. Even more unfortunately, the attack struck the trading district itself. Stiles, Derek, Allison, and everyone else in the facility surged out of the building to begin a sprint through the streets. 

Oddly enough, whenever they turned, the kaiju followed them. Stiles was struck with the memory of his childhood, running from a kaiju and feeling it follow his every move. 

“Stiles! Why is it following us?” Derek shouted to him. 

“I don’t know! And I don’t really have time to find out right now, I’m running for my life!”

“Hey, guys?” Allison asked. “You said you wanted to drift with a kaiju, but did you already do it?”

“Yeeeees?” Stiles replied slowly. 

“What if when you drifted, now you’re connected like with having drifted with another person? What if that’s making it so the kaiju can track you?”

“Fuck!” was Stiles’ only response to that query. 

* * *

Derek’s mind raced. So far they had failed to lose the kaiju, and even he was starting to slow down. He had no idea how Stiles and Allison were keeping up. Come to think of it, where was Allison? 

As Derek turned to look, he saw Stiles trip and fall behind him with a grunt. In a split second decision, he decided to turn and go back. 

Stiles looked up, and Derek saw pain flash through his eyes. “Derek! Tell my dad-“

In another moment Derek had reached his side. “I said I’d come back for you,” he said with a small smile.

Stiles sighed. “Very romantic, but now is  _ really _ not the time. Unless you wanted to Romeo and Juliet this?”

Derek grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a dumpster. “Don’t you have the drift equipment on you?”

“Yeah, but… Derek, I all of a sudden don’t like where this is going.”

“We have to try, Stiles. It might work this time.”

“Okay, but don’t let me get lost.”

Derek looked at him. “I won’t.”

* * *

After quickly hooking up to the rig, Derek spared a glance around the dumpster. The kaiju was gaining on them, sniffing down the alleyway like its eyesight wasn’t that good. 

Holding his breath, Derek looked at Stiles. They had one shot. “Are you ready?”

Stiles’ only response was a tight-lipped nod. 

Both men closed their eyes to enter the drift. 

* * *

It was like putting the last pieces of a puzzle together. Stiles opened his eyes in the drift, looked at Derek, and then grabbed the third connection. 

Scott and Isaac’s Jaeger was right behind the kaiju by the time Stiles and Derek were finished entering the drift, and skewered the monster just as it rounded the corner. Leaping synchronously, Stiles and Derek entered the mouth of the kaiju to find the secondary brain, only pausing to briefly check their equipment. That part completed, they pushed onward. 

Scenes of kaiju lifestyle started to flit past as they entered further into the drift. Visions of tests, modifications, the birth process - cloning, it turned out - and most importantly, the way that the kaiju had been testing the humans since the beginning of their attacks. 

_ Terraforming _ , Stiles mouthed to Derek, wide-eyed. 

Derek just nodded back. The kaiju were doing terraforming, in the most literal sense, modifying the population and layout of the Earth so that they would be able to invade eventually. 

“We have to tell them!” Stiles called to Derek. 

Derek nodded in response. The end was the trickiest part when you were drifting in a bare-bones setup like this, where there was no machine to communicate with to help verify that you’d left the drift. On the one hand, Derek knew what drifting felt like. On the other, he’d never drifted with Stiles before and it might be different with him. 

The only way out was through. Pushing on, Derek began the process of leaving the drift himself and felt Stiles doing the same. A final twitch from the kaiju sent Stiles and Derek flying out of its mouth, looking up to see Allison and Lydia standing by with two identical rocket launchers aimed at the kaiju. As soon as the two of them were clear, the women shot simultaneous rockets into the belly of the beast, handily dismantling it from the inside out. 

“Nooo, I could have done research with that!” Stiles whined. 

“It looks like you did plenty of research to me,” replied Lydia frostily. “When are you two idiots going to start telling people where you’re going? I had to find out by mapping the most likely location of this next attack, and while that was a fun activity, it sure as hell wasn’t how I was planning to spend my evening.” 

Stiles grinned up at her. “We made it out alive, isn’t that what matters? Now, my queen, I must retire. I  _ reek _ of kaiju innards.”

* * *

Stiles quietly knocked on Derek’s door later that night. “Hey, can I come in?” 

Derek opened the door, and Stiles obliged by sitting down on the bed. 

“I was thinking about today. I think that we could pilot a Jaeger together now, don’t you?” 

“I think so, Stiles, I think so,” Derek replied. 

* * *

The final battle was brutal and ended with complete Jaeger destruction. It did turn out, though, that you could send a Jaeger down and eject just before detonating it, and ascend faster than the blast radius - but only just. 

Derek pulled the ejection lever on Gipsy Danger after descending through the rift and detonating the core. The crack he felt in his chest from the force of ejection was probably a few ribs breaking, which he vaguely realized before passing out. 

After rising to the surface and blinking his eyes open, he saw Stiles glaring down at him. 

“If you ever do that again,” Stiles said, “I will bring you back to life so I can kill you myself.” 

“Don’t worry,” Derek replied, “I think piloting a Jaeger through an interdimensional rift once was enough for me.” 

Stiles tipped his head back in a laugh, the sun glinting in his amber eyes, and Derek realized that one thing was missing. 

“Hey, Stiles?” Derek asked. 

“Yeah?” Stiles replied. 

“Want to get dinner with me sometime?”

Derek hoped that the kiss meant yes. 

**Author's Note:**

> the vibe is "if you die i will bring you back to life so i can kill you myself"


End file.
